>>1362313It's all about location, and it's also more of a hobby in some areas. Only gone panning once in a region known to only have placer deposits, didn't get anything after an hour. You have to move yards of dirt to actually start getting to the good shit *unless* you're in a damn good spot. The mountains I was panning had only produced 2,000 ounces in the past so not very much, A guy in my town actually managed to get 1 ounce, but it took him 1 year of panning and sluicing. While another guy found 200 ounces of gold literally just walking through the mountains, all nuggets. I recommend you research locations of previous placer deposits, then go out and give them a try. I have a whole bunch of old mining maps of my state (AZ) but I ain't posting them, 650k ounces of Gold mined in the state since 1880, MT has even more Au. I'll grab some resources for Montana though.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5158652.pdfhttps://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0978c/report.pdfhttp://www.mbmg.mtech.edu/sp28/mina-l.htm 